Animals in Verses

15 Mar. 2008 | La Carmelina Gallery – Ferrara
by Ilaria Siboni
text by Corrado Cati

Francesco Petrosillo

Telephone conversation with the artist.

Petrosillo focuses on the animal world, one wonders why he doesn’t deal with man and figure…but why not ask him in person, I’ll call him!… 54175, tuuuu, tuuuu, … tuuuu, tuuuu,
P: HELLO?
C:Hi Francesco, it’s Corrando, do you have a second?
P: Hi Corrado, tell me!
C: you know I’m working on the piece for the 15th at the Carmelina, and I was wondering how to explain your scarce propension in representing humans and figure on canvas…
P: Ummm! You know, I think it’s because having abused of the theme as a young man, well, I feel man is not living the best of himself lately…I wouldnt want this deep criticism to be felt through the strokes, and someone may feel affected, I dont want problems. On the contrary, to my knowledge, animals, keeping in mind that some dont have any, use their ears only to chase away the flies!
C: Oh, I see… ok, see you in Ferrara, bye!
P: Bye Corrado, and thank you, see you on Saturday…

The work by Petrosillo here exhibited has its origin in the confrontation of his illustrations and the poetic text by Franco Marcoaldi “Animals in Verse” (Publisher Einaudi) that the writer entered in the contest “La collana bianca si colora” (the white necklace takes colour). On that occasion, the artist freed his imagination and reinterpreted on paper, in a purely ironic and personal denotation, those poems that shook him more.  In the same way, his previous exhibition, which took place a year before at the same location, gave attention to those “Ciclopescitropicali” (cyclotropicalfish) which had a way of creating those surreal chromatic combinations that amplifies a certain fantastic and unreal dimension. The present exhibition at the “La Carmelina “ in Ferrara reiterates, in a sort of thematic continuity, how the animal subject is what better adapts to living in multicoloured and fantastic places, those depicted by Petrosillo.
The comparison between the present works with the previous ones shows a permanence of the sense of chromatic and structural balance; the calibrated research both in the attention to colour and in the representation of the figures which usually distinguishes the artists work, although we do realise something is changing. In fact, in this exhibition, the base of the paintings is losing it’s uniformity it is given in blocks, decomposed  by a more estreme and approximate stylistic execution. The irregular strokes nick into the subjects and the composure gives way to dispersion. On the whole, the work is more turbulent, screamed, and, while the figures gain more chaotic  dynamism, tending to a timid abstraction, the expressive urgency clashes with the chromatic equilibrium.

Corrado Cati